________________
156
ETHICAL DOCTRINES IN JAINISM
but the adornment of the householder's life with Dhyāna is never possible. All this must not imply that the householder is outright incapable of performing Dhyāna, but it should mean that he cannot perform Dhyāna of the best order, which is possible only in the life of the saint. 2) If the aspirant, despite his saintly garb suffers from the philosophical and ethical delusions, he will likewise lose the opportunity of performing Dhyāna. In other words, right belief and right conduct cannot be dispensed with, if Dhyāna is to be performed. 3) The control of mind which in turn leads to the control of passions and senses is also the essential condition of Dhyāna. Mental distraction like mental perversion hinders meditational progress, and to achieve liberation without mental purity is to drink water from there where it is not, i.e., from the river of mirage: That is Dhyāna, that is supreme knowledge, that is the object of Dhyāna by virtue of which the mind after transcending ignorance submerges in the self's own nature.' A man who talks of Dhyāna without the conquest of mind is ignorant of the nature of Dhyāna. On the reflective plane, the recognition of the potential divinity of the empirical self, and the consciousness of the difference between the empirical self and the transcendental self will unequivocally function as the mental pre-requisite condition of Dhyāna.The practice of the fourfold virtues of maitri (friendship with all creatures), pramoda (appreciation of the merits of others), karunā (compassion and sympathy) and mādhyastha (indifference to the unruly) has also been represented as the mental pre-requisite conditions of Dhyāna. These quadruple virtues, when practised in an earnest spirit, cause to disappear the slumber of perversion, and to set in eternal tranquillity. 4-6) The selection of proper place, posture and time is of no less importance for the performance of Dhyāna. The aspirant should avoid those places which are inhabited by the vicious, hypocrites, and the acutely perverted persons, and by gamblers, drunkkards, harlots etc., and should also avoid those places which may be otherwise disturbing.' He should choose those places which are associaed with the names of holy Tīrthamkaras and saints. A bank of a river, a summit of a mountain, an islnd, and a cave and other places of seclu sion and inspiration, should be chosen for practising spiritual concen tration. As regards the posture for Dhyāna, for the people of this age who
1 Jñānā. IV. 17. 2 Ibid XXII. 19. 3 Ibid. XXII. 20. 4 Ibid. XXII. 24. 5 Ibid. XXVII. 4. Ibid. XXVII. 18. 7 Ibid XXVII-23 to 33. 8 Ibid. XXVIII. 1. Ibid. XXVIII. 2 to 7.
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
